The University of Warwick is a campus university which, despite its name, is not based in Warwick, it is actually located a distance away from Warwick, on the outskirts of Coventry.

Despite being one of the UK's younger universities (Founded 1965), Warwick University has a high reputation in departments such as Computer Science and Business, and is a member of the Russell Group of top UK universities.

In recent years the university has become the favoured poster child of the New Labour government, representing what the government wants all universities to achieve.

The University was ranked 5th among the UK's 100 universities for quality of research in the UK Funding Councils' 2001 Research Assessment Exercise. Over 91% of the University's academic staff are located in departments with top research ratings of 5 or 5*.

22 of the 24 University academic departments which have been assessed under the Subject Review process conducted by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education have been rated 'excellent' or scored 21 or more points out of 24 for the quality of their teaching. Seven departments have achieved the maximum score of 24 out of 24.

Total number of students: 17,904
including:
undergraduates 10,077
postgraduates 6,272
overseas undergraduate and postgraduate students 2,948
other programmes 1,555
overseas students on other programmes 1,484

Total number of staff: 3,850
including:
academic 775
research 675

Size of campus:
292 hectares (720 acres)

The University Crest includes atoms of two isotopes of Lithium, a DNA Helix to represent Science and also the Chained Bear of Warwickshire and the Elephant of Coventry.